Charter Schools Bill Back For '98

General Assembly Changes Should Aid Hamilton Measure

January 13, 1998|By PATRICK LEE PLAISANCE Daily Press

If you're Del. Phillip Hamilton of Newport News, there's always reason to hold out hope for your controversial bill to allow the creation of charter schools - even though it has been killed in committee for the last four years.

In fact, there are signs that ``Phil's Bill,'' as his colleagues have taken to calling the charter schools measure, may have its best chance ever of surviving a committee vote when the General Assembly reconvenes Wednesday. But not before the issue reignites the bitter, racially divisive debates of last year, observers and lawmakers say.

With the support of President Clinton and Gov.-elect Jim Gilmore, with more than half the states in the nation having adopted the concept of charter schools and with millions of federal dollars available to help Virginia fund its own version, Hamilton and other lawmakers say support for charter schools may be gathering a critical mass this year.

Add to those factors a shakeup in the ranks of the powerful House Education Committee as a result of November's elections, and Hamilton may have reason to be more optimistic this year.

``I'm hopeful this year we can get it out of committee,'' Hamilton said. ``Two negative votes were defeated,'' he said, referring to Democrats George Lovelace of Northern Virginia and Shirley Cooper of York County, who voted against the proposal in committee. The House Speaker has yet to announce who replaces those two - and a third opposing vote, Del. Julia A. Connally, D-Arlington, who retired.

Those committee appointments may not alter the tie vote that has killed Hamilton's bill in the past, but Hamilton said his persistence may pay off.

``At least now it's quite possible that the two folks who get appointed wouldn't be as rigid in their feelings,'' he said.

Under Hamilton's bill, local school boards would have the authority to OK requests from parents or a school to create a charter school. Proponents of charter schools say they would provide a better education for students because those schools would have their own sets of guidelines. They would be free from most conventional schedules, curricula, teaching methods and policies established by state laws and local school boards - the kind of rules that dictate such details as how many minutes a student must be in math class.

Such freedom has proven to be a successful way to turn troubled schools around and tailor education to student needs, Hamilton and other supporters have argued.

But while other states have allowed public schools to break away from traditional management and create their own curriculum, many still suspect charter schools are simply a way to funnel public dollars into essentially private, possibly segregated schools.

Last year, the battle against Hamilton's bill was waged largely by state NAACP officials, who argued it would enable white parents to band together and form their own schools, bringing back 1950s racial segregation. The former president of the state NAACP even threatened ``to go after'' any lawmakers who voted for the measure.

``A real fundamental concern continues to be that when the legislature meets and makes decisions, it doesn't forget kids left behind - kids who are left behind in crumbling buildings and who don't have the advantages of technology,'' Carlton said. ``It's largely economic: How many poor kids could take advantage of charter schools? It may be that they don't take on a low-income kid because they're more expensive.''

The Virginia School Boards Association also has opposed Hamilton's measure in previous years. Last month, the association adopted a statement that expresses the same worries but does not openly oppose charter schools.

``I have a sense that there's increasing pressure to pass some sort of charter schools legislation,'' said David Blount, lobbyist for the association. ``Aside from hiring 4,000 new elementary teachers, this will be one of the hottest policy topics for discussion in education,'' he said, referring to an initiative by Gilmore.

Hamilton said he hopes to at least get the bill to the House floor for a full debate. And that could happen, said Del. W.W. "Ted" Bennett Jr., D-Halifax County, one of the Education Committee members who has voted against Hamilton's bill in the past. This year, Bennett, who chairs the state Commission on the Future of Public Education in Virginia, said he has urged Hamilton to try again.

Compared to some states, which have allowed charter schools to be developed without the control of local school officials, Hamilton's bill may be the best way to ease the fears of those who say charter schools sap public schools of money and good students.

``I think people have had a chance to reflect on it, and they feel that it's the purest public school bill there is in the country,'' Bennett said. ``Some people feel better about it now.''